Rosa Luxemburg( Series - Life× )

Her brilliance as an agitational journalist and theorist won her a commanding position in the male-dominated German Social Democratic Party and the admiration of European socialists. She was murdered in 1919 in the turmoil of an insurrection she had argued against. Luxemburg is widely seen as a historical curiosity: a theorist of a political philosophy that failed, a dream that proved to be a nightmare. The biography, above all, tells the story of a vivid and sympathetic character, one who, had she lived, would have played a pivotal role in European history. Luxemburg's interest lies in her personality and the effect of that personality on her politics, a politics marked by libertarian instincts and a warm humanity. It is this that led to successive revivals of interest, in the radical wave of the 1960s and 1970s, among feminists in the 1970s and 1980s, and now among 21st century opponents of global capitalism. This biography places Luxemburg in her historical and political context. Did her Marxism take so clearly a libertarian and humanitarian turn because she was a woman? What part did her Jewish background play in her development? Did her disability encourage a broader human sympathy? How can the paradox of a political mind that worked ceaselessly for violent revolution and a heart that cried to see an animal ill-treated be explained? This book considers all these questions by studying the interlinked nature of Luxemburg's politics, attitude towards feminism, and her emotional friendships and relationships.